Falling for Deceit || WATTYS 2017

29

As soon as the piercing sound had left my throat there was a pounding of footsteps outside, and then the bathroom door was thrown wide open. "I'VE GOT A WEAPON AND I'M NOT AFRAID TO USE IT!" Reina charged in with panicked, wide eyes, raising a knife high in the air. But when she saw me breathing heavily on the floor with no one else in the bathroom, she dropped the arm with a frown, setting the knife aside on the polished marble sink. 

"You-" I began, panting, desperate for the sweet relief of breathing. "You thought there was someone in here? With armed men surrounding the mansion..." She threw her hands up with disbelief and came over to crouch down beside me with worried eyes. 

"Sweet baby Jesus, Tony, you scared the shite out of me!"  

"There- there's blood -" I whispered, swallowing the emotion and pointing a finger to a spot on the smooth, tiled floor with shallow breaths. Reina frowned again and glanced behind her. And then she also saw the red patch in the cotton panties. When she looked back at me, her eyes were full of concern, but also knowledge that made me start breathing normally and quit the shaking. Calming down, caaaaalming down. 

"Tony, I want you to be a completely honest with me, okay? Don't be embarassed, and don't hide anything from me, or I won't be able to help you." Having no clue as to where she was going with this, I swallowed and nodded. 

"I understand." 

She studied me for a second. Then, she narrowed those shrewd eyes of hers. "Did you and Marco have sex?" 

"What!" I exclaimed, shaking my head furiously. "No! Of course not!" 

"Come on, Tony," she chided, rolling her eyes, "Did you lose your virtue last night? Or had you already lost it before Marco? You've got to give me something to work with here, babe." 

"Reina," I began, looking her directly in the eyes. "I did not have sex with Marco." 

There was a pensiveness her muteness while she stared at me intently. And then she tilted her head to the side, a softly reassuring expression falling into place. "Tony, have you ever had a period before?" 

Confusion trickled into my brain as I searched it for a meaning for that particular word. I groaned with frustration when I came up with nothing. "No, a period is a length of time, Reina..." I gestured wildly to the panties on the floor and began standing up by pressing one hand against the smooth wall. Reina rose with me, that look that was beginning to seem a lot like pity still firmly in place. "That's blood over there, Rei." 

"I know," she answered calmly, "That's why I'm asking you. But from how you're reacting, the answer's obviously no." 

"You're losing me," I groaned, massaging my temples with my forefingers. I abruptly stilled when she placed a hand on my left upper arm with a gentle smile. I dropped my hands. "What?" 

"From what you've told me, you've been underfed since you can remember." 

"Yes," I crossed my arms over my chest, shifting my weight on the soles of my feet. "So what? I'm fine now, aren't I?" The last part was spoken with a spark of hesitation in the words. Was I dying or something? Okay, let's not overdramatisize here - 

"From a certain age, women start bleeding once every month. I'm guessing you were never told because it never happened to you. And the reason for that was probably because you weren't heavy enough. But now..." she trailed off, before resuming with a sigh. "Now you're inching up to a healthy weight, so you've started bleeding."

"Oh," was all I could manage. But my eyes widened as I stared at my friend afore me. "You sure know a lot." 

"No, hon," Reina shook her head sadly. "You've just never been taught. But I'm here now, and I'll help you, okay? You might experience this several times a month, or you might not even have it again for a while, but that's because your weight is changing a lot. But it's completely normal, and you shouldn't feel the need to hide it. In fact, I think that it's wrong that you weren't educated about it when you were younger, but I can't blame your mother for that, because of the circumstances. However, I think that it's wrong that we hide it from young girls and make them feel ashamed about it." 

"It's weird, though, Rei," I countered in a small voice, wrapping my arms around my middle awkwardly as I stared at those forbidden panties on the tiles. I had never seen this before, never experienced the blood in between my legs. It made me shiver. "It's... disgusting." The piercing, cool look that Reina abruptly sent my way could have seemed murderous if I wasn't so sure that she was my best friend. 

"No," she answered firmly. "It's one of the foundations to creating life. And that, my friend, is holier than anything on this planet. Now get in the shower. I'll find something for you so you won't leak during the day." And then she turned away, picked up the panties from the floor and marched out of the bathroom with her head held high. As the door shut firmly, it was hard not to feel embarassed. But I heard the reason in her words and clung to its meaning as I stared at the space she'd been standing in. It was hard not to admire the woman. But then I realized that because of what had just transpired, we had even less time to get ready and down in the foyer. I slipped out of my nightgown and stepped into the shower, turning on the water that instantly grew warm before I could think twice about it. 

I let out a yelp almost as quick and ducked away from the water. Wincing, I inclined my head and stared down at my right shoulder. The top of the ugly scar that Marco had carved there was barely visible, and with a shuddering breath, I tried to stop imagining what the rest of my skin looked like on my shoulderblade. I went underneath the shower again, careful to not direct the wound under the hot spray, reliving every second of the knife trail's excruciating pain as the water sizzled down my naked body. And then the feeling of Marco's arms around me fell into place behind my closed eyes. That and the torturous memory of the cold metal tip against my skin was enough to get me dizzy from tormented confusion. But I kept standing on suddenly shaky legs, leaning against the blurry glass pane when balance proved too hard to keep up. I only stepped back out when Reina knocked on the door. And the only thing that I felt was numbness as I towel-dried my body in what I knew to be luxurious, Egyptian cotton. Not even the soft material brought away the phantom pain. Whether it be that on the exterior or on the inside of my chest. 

-

A/N: Such a short chapter, I know. I was planning on writing more, but it felt so weird to transition from such a crucial moment to yet another dramatic event without anything in between. I am being buried in homework and exams, and hey, your girl needs a social life too, so updates have been slow. That and the fact that I have tennis and other activities every day after school makes it kind of hard to make time to write. So please understand my reasons when I say that the next chapter won't be up until at least next weekend. However, I hope that you love this story, Tony and Marco enough to stick with me. If you do, be prepared for a roller-coaster of drama and emotions, and secrets so dark you could have never imagined them. I hope I've made you curious ;-)

Until the next!

-xoxo, Sophia